I sense that all the green groups from across Europe have really gotten their teeth into the glyphosate issue. And they are not going to let go this time.
A case in point is this week’s report from the PAN Europe group, calling for a complete ban on the availability of glyphosate.
This comes in the run-up to a final decision on the future use of the herbicide by European Union (EU) authorities.
Meanwhile, all of Ireland’s farming organisations continue to campaign vigorously for the continuing availability of the chemical.
But, as we fast progress through the third decade of the 21st century, how sustainable is it to argue for the continued use of a herbicide that, literally, kills everything?
Glyphosate
Now I know certain genetically modified (GM) crops that are tolerant to glyphosate. However, this is a direction of travel that bears no relevance, whatsoever, to the issue of its use in Europe.
The reality is that we live in changing times.
The authors of the aforementioned PAN Europe report point to the role of mechanical weed control, bi-cropping and more effective rotation strategies as the new bedrock for food crops in the here and now.
And they might well be right. I had the opportunity to visit France last year where I saw mechanical weeding systems in action. And they work.
In that part of the world, the days of putting in a winter crop of cereal and simply leaving it at that, are over. The preferred option now is to extend the row width within a cereal crop to 12″.
This then allows the grower to establish a second crop option between the established rows the next spring, and hoe for weeds at the same time.
On the farms that I visited, the crop options selected were winter wheat and soya. The cereal is harvested in early June of the following year, leaving plenty of time and space for the soya to grow on.
And I see no reason why such a plan of action could not be adopted in Ireland. All we need to do is come up with the right spring cropping option.
Could we look at the possibility of inter-planting fodder beet with winter barley? I don’t know; happy to let wiser counsel advise on the matter.
The farming industry here puts forward the argument that we need the continuing use of glyphosate because of our special circumstances i.e., extremes of weather etc.
My lasting memory of France last October was that of farmers walking fields with the texture of concrete; the land was just so dry.
I would humbly suggest that such is an extreme condition that we would rarely, if ever, have to cope with here.